Innocence
by Djali is Queen
Summary: Planning to see the boy of her fancy, Nayelia, Jack and Keria's almost eighteen-year-old daughter, runs into the handsome phantom of Forget-Me-Not-Valley. OC/Skye


I definitely made up names for _every_ person under the age of 20in this story. A new generation, right? So new names. This is called a name generator that takes into account the mother's and father's names. I'm not lazy, I just wanted to be

Also, this has _nothing_ to do with _Boots Are Lonely, But They'd Never Admit It_.

Well, here goes. Enjoy!

'But daddy, I'll only be a few minutes! I just have to go say hi to Alec really quick. I left something at the tent earlier.'

Her father stood in the doorway, tapping his foot as he watched his daughter bobbing across the path to kiss him goodbye. He wasn't happy that his daughter wanted to go out this late for a boy, even if it was Flora and Carter's son. He frowned at his daughter as he grabbed her shoulder, eyes glaring down at her.

'No funny business, Nayelia. Check in with Carter and Flora, and come home as quickly as you can. It's almost ten o'clock. They might not even be awake.'

Staring straight into his daughter's eyes Jack could see his wife. Every detail of young Nayelia's face showed that she was her mother's daughter. The young princess... Nayelia smiled up at her father, pecking him on the cheek before ducking under his arms and running off and down the road waving and yelling 'It won't take long, I promise!' and then his little girl was gone.

'Oh!' he exclaimed, hitting his head with his palm. 'I should have let her take the horse!' But Nayelia had already been swallowed by the darkness, not even the silhouette of her slender figure to be found in the darkness.

Knowing that Alec would still be awake put to a stride to Nayelia's step. She giggled as she skipped across the little bridge that gapped the river. He had promised that he would still be awake, and that she could meet him by the waterfall. She cooed giddily, flouncing about with pent up excitement. Alec was such a handsome boy. With his father's jaw and thick hair but his mother's beauty and complexion, Alec was the most beautiful boy in Forget-Me-Not-Valley. They had known each other since birth, as had everyone in the Valley, but she had never thought much of the quiet, studious young boy. She had always thought that he took after his father, Carter: a little bit gruff and very reserved. But as they grew older she began to realize that his mother's amiability and unique humor had been passed on to him as well. Not only was his a terribly loyal friend, once he was attached to a person, but he could spin a yarn that would make a person reel with laughter. And now that Alec and Nayelia were friends she knew all of this about him and liked him more for it. A _lot_ more.

When they had been kids they'd been friendly enough, but the boy-girl cooties of childhood had disenchanted her with the male sex entirely. Now she was eighteen, and with age came a new appreciation for boys. Well... almost eighteen. Soon to be. Only a week away.

Nayelia sprinted down the white-picket-fence-lined road where Marlin and Vesta's farm watched her with its large black glass eyes. They were usually asleep early because, like her father, they were farming folk and rose with the sun. She stopped in front of their house, staring in through the bottom window, trying to see if Vesta and Rae were still awake playing cards again. Rae, the petite daughter of Marlin and Celia, would often stay up late into the night, long after her parents had gone to bed and play cards with her aunt Vesta, who had been a notorious gambler in college (or so she said).

She pressed her bronze face to the window, looking for any sign of life. 'I don't think...'

'Looking in someone's window... A bit intrusive, isn't it?'

Nayelia spun around, but the surprise tripped her up, and she fell with a loud thud against the window. She flinched as she waited for the sound of thumping footsteps or the gruff voice of Merlin or his sister to greet her, but nothing came. She slowly peeled her eyes open. It took her a moment to register the person standing in front of her. He was a tall, thin man, pale as moonlight. The man laughed lightly at her before running a hand through his long white hair and extending it toward her.

'Are you alright?'

'Yeah,' she gasped, taking his pallid palm. He pulled her up with a surprisingly strong grip, stopping her before she could fall onto him. The wan man smiled down at her, his silver hair hanging into his eyes. Despite his hair color he didn't look that old. No wrinkles or anything... he looked only a few years older than her.

'Er, I'm Nayelia,' stuttered the girl, nervously wiping her hands on her pants. 'Um... my friends they, uh, they call me Naya. I um... I don't think we've ever met before.' One of her long fingered hands fell off her thigh and offered itself to the strange stranger. Having lived in The Valley all her life she was shocked that she didn't know the man. And if he was out walking this late at night he couldn't have been too new.

'Skye. It's a pleasure to meet you.' His smile sparkled in the moonlit night, refracting beams of moonshine off and landing with warming her face. 'You must be Jack's daughter.'

'Oh! Do you know my dad?'

A wide, mischievous smile spread across his thin lips, and his knuckles settled beneath his chin. 'Yes, I know your father. Your mother as well. You're her spitting image, you know.'

'Everyone tells me that,' she chuckled with a bashful smile. Her eyes fell down to the ground and she scuffed the dirt with her feet. She normally didn't feel so silly around men that weren't her age, but something about this man made her feel... self-conscious. Forcing her eyes back up to the face of her new acquaintance she pushed herself to ask about him.

'How long have you lived here? I don't think we've ever met.'

The man paused for a moment, his eyes locked on to the younger girl. For a brief second she thought that he might not answer her question. A broad, sweet smile spread across her face, and soon enough the man's face softened, and he seemed more eager to answer. Every man acted with obligation when she smiled at them with the same smile that her mother had. It was irresistible.

'I don't live here,' slipped the sentence, his face drained of the distance that had occupied in moments before. He was now part of her world, trapped by her heavy coal eyes and her lolling smile. 'Walking. I always... well... actually I haven't been here in a while,' he said, shaking off her powers and regaining his stoic mien. 'I come by every once in a while. Quite often when I was younger, but I had business in the city, and haven't had time to come to The Valley.'

The stranger opened his eyes, boring past the pretty young girls surface and into her soul. A languid smile sprawled across his milky skin, challenging her own. It startled her a little, to see a smile with the same powers as her own. Her lip twitched a little, and she could feel her head cock to the side. The man extended one of his delicate paws to her.

'It was a pleasure Princess Nayelia. A pity you aren't older.'

Millions of tiny blood cells congregated beneath her skin, whispering excitedly and trying to get a better glance at the man who had made Nayelia's tender heart chase after him. Nayelia wished that they wouldn't go into such a frenzy, because her blood was quite visible in the tender moonlight. But there was nothing she could do to control them. She let her hand land in the ghostly visitor's and shook it as strongly as she could manage in her weakened state.

Skye had sharp eyes, and when he caught the blush that had brushed her visage. He turned her hand to the open sky and, bending perfectly parallel to ground, place a lingering kiss within her soft palm.

'Seventeen,' he breathed before he straightened himself out. 'You'll be a beautiful woman one day.'

The shadow floated off down the road, thinking fondly of the daughter of the farmer who ardently hated him, and the young Princess that he had once courted. Little Nayelia was paralyzed where she stood, exposed in more ways than she had ever been. Having forgotten completely about the handsome black-haired Alec, she ran home, blushing furiously. Only a quickly, timid goodbye slipped from her lips as she ran past Skye. As soon as she reached her house she slammed the door, collapsing against it.

'Nayelia?' groaned her father from his bed. The noise had woken him, but only enough that he lifted one shoulder to get a better look at the heap on the floor. 'Are you alright?'

'Yeah dad,' came the flat voice of his daughter. Her breath was long gone and she wondered if she would ever regain the ability to breathe again. 'I'm fine. Go back to bed.'

Too tired to perceive the difference in his daughter Jack lay back down, holding onto his wife, and loosing himself to his sleep.

But Nayelia could not move. Her heart thrummed against her rib cage, wanting to burst forth and hunt down the beautiful man that had enchanted it so. She placed a hand against her chest, trying to calm the overwhelmed organ, but it would not listen to her, shouting at her with rhythmic thuds that echoed in her ears. Her other hand had been stuck beneath her, but she pried it away and settled it on her cheek, which was burning hotter than the stars. Her hand was icy cold, almost as cold as the dream she had met on the road, and cooled her face instantly. His image burned in her brain, watching her with his stunning cerulean eyes.

Never in her short life had Nayelia imagined that a man as wonderful as that eccentric phantom could have existed. Part of her wondered if she had a chance. He must have been around the same age as her father, but not quite as young as her mother. She knew it was impossible, but as she thought more of the will-o'-the-wisp of a man the further she fell into his enchantment. And then the decision was made: older or not, Nayelia would have the man, _Skye_, all to herself.

She picked herself up off the floor, and curled into her hazy dreams of silver skies.


End file.
